The cold opening tells us nothing we don’t already know: Yugure understands perfectly what a marriage is, she’s devoted to Akira and Akira only, and she loves the fact that he’s loyal to the one he loves even though it’s not her. Nevertheless, Yugure goes on a date with Kalcrom just to make Akira jealous. Before anyone else can properly react, Fides also shows up to drag Akira on a date as well. Yay, we have ourselves a double date. Aren’t you excited? I’m totally am. In the end, Yugure ends up being more jealous of Fides than Akira is of Kalcrom. To top it all off, they even allow Amoru to tag along. Sigh, this isn’t exactly what I had in mind when I was looking forward to a post-apocalyptic story about AI and androids.
For one of our pairings, however, this double date is just a ruse. Kalcrom already knows that Yugure is an android. He learned that last night when her drunk ass accidentally blurted it out. That’s right, the android was drunk at one point. She calls it her “Intoxication Mode.” Can a “brain” made out of transistors derive pleasure from being drunk? Or is her “brain” actually more human-like than we assume? Look, don’t question it; even a robot girl deserves to have fun. In any case, Kalcrom is seemingly interested in seeing if an android and a human can fall in love with one another. Maybe if she can prove that her love for Akira is genuine, then maybe the love between… ugh, the two siblings can be genuine as well. No, no it cannot. Meanwhile, Akira can’t help but feel some sort of kinship with Fides, because they’re both people who are in love with their… ugh, again, siblings. I can’t believe this is my post-apocalyptic anime about androids. Of all the salient topics we could’ve explored, we’re going with incest. “evERyTHinG iS RelATIVe! it’S JuST thEiR cuLtuRe!” Sigh.
We even get a short flashback where Fides used to play hide-and-seek with a crybaby Kalcrom. According to Fides, she and Kalcrom stopped being friendly to each other shortly afterward. The truth is that Kalcrom wants to become the big boss for the sole purpose of changing the family from within. Apparently, he’s been secretly protecting their other siblings, which is good. It means they’re not dead (and hopefully neither is the dog). But he’s dumb in a way, because he honestly believes Fides is choosing Akira to be her partner. He’s just not as dumb as Fides, who admits that her brother would be a good boss — and even comes to a realization later that he’s doing this all for her — but she still needs to take over because “it’s [still] too painful for a sweet kid like him.” Fucking groan. Obviously, the two of them are shit communicators. They both just need to sit down and hash things out without putting up all these fronts. Akira basically has the same idea when he proposes that the two… ugh, siblings “talk it over.”
But it’s not a normal relationship, so I don’t care. I’m not even going to try to care. I also don’t really like the implication that we can lump their incestuous relationship in with all the others we’ve seen throughout this show, i.e. the traditional love between Akira and Towa or the polyamorous ones between those who “ehlsea.” I might not entertain the idea of polyamory for myself, but I personally don’t care what other consenting adults do with their lives. But no, I’m drawing a hard line in the sand when it comes to incest. Fuck outta here with that shit. You’re not going to make me feel bad for either Fides or Kalcrom.
As for our “main couple,” Akira is mostly concerned about Yugure’s safety, which makes sense. I don’t think he has any romantic feelings for her, because it would be too soon. Nevertheless, the way he’s handling the situation is mind-bogglingly stupid. Why is it so hard for him to sit his companions down and explain things clearly to them. “Yo, I just woke up from a coma a short while ago. My feelings for Towa are still fresh; it still feels like yesterday when I confessed to her. As a result, I’m not ready to think about falling in love with anyone else at the moment. I need closure on Towa and what happened to her before I can move on.” Easy-fucking-peasy, right? Even an android should understand that. But no, his retort is that he’s still engaged to Towa, who is likely a dead woman. So instead of coming across like a reasonable human being dealing with a heavy heart, he just sounds fucking crazy and delusional. Maybe he is crazy and delusional. Maybe he’s holding out hope that Towa also stuck herself in a medical pod, and all he needs to do is to go find and save her. I still think he’s staring at Towa right before him, but I guess we’ll see.
Unfortunately, Yugure being an android is such a poorly kept secret. Granted, she had to out herself in order to save a man from being crushed to death. Two episodes ago, this probably would’ve seemed illogical to her. Why would she put herself in danger for a random person? After all, she’s still being hunted by OWEL. There’s also the fact that she would be a valuable asset to any shady organization out there… like, say, the freakin’ mafia. But I guess she’s taken Akira’s criticism to her robot heart, so she couldn’t help but save the man. Unfortunately, the cat’s now out of the bag: a spy immediately reports the situation to the big boss so Kalcrom is going to get what’s coming to him. Y’know, there might be a sad outcome after this is all said and done. Kalcrom and Fides might be star-crossed lovers. Yeah, I don’t approve of the whole incest thing, but I don’t exactly want anyone to lose their lives either.
Shit predictably hits the fan when the big boss shows up with a small army behind his back. Yugure quickly disables her “Intoxication Mode” like drunkenness is just some sort of gas she can fart out. Now that our robot can think straight, she’s going to kick the big boss’s ass and save the day, right? Before that can happen, however, we see a sniper taking aim at Yugure and pulling the trigger. I assume he’s there in case the android proves to be a danger to the big boss. Otherwise, I don’t know why the big boss would insist on acquiring Yugure for himself if they’re just going to shoot her. Nevertheless, our big fancy robot with her big fancy features somehow can’t detect that she’s in danger. So of course, it comes down to the boring ass human Akira to once again put his body in harm’s way. Once again, he takes the bullet for his love interest. Maybe the writer or writers thought having him sacrifice himself again for a Towa facsimile would be poetic. George Lucas would certainly be proud. But personally, I find the whole situation to be ridiculous. Plus, there’s no tension here, because we know he’s gonna be fine. They’re not going to kill off the main character in the fourth episode.
Stray thoughts & observations:
- The mafia boss wants his kids to produce an heir. Well, that’s gonna be a problem with Yugure. On a related note, what if that medical pod had weird side effects we don’t know about? Who can really say that all of Akira’s “equipment” are in working order?
- Amoru really is just the child of the group. During the double date, she dashes off excitedly on her own. Akira even has to tell her to be careful like he’s admonishing his own kid. That’s why I cringe a little when she insists on the three of them, i.e. her, Akira, and Yugure, entering into an ehlsea. I’m not convinced that her “I like you” is romantic in nature. She’s just a lonely kid — an orphan — who is attached to her saviors.
- You know, Yugure’s outfit does share the same colors as the ones you can find on a transgender flag. Of course, I doubt that’s what the story is going for. Just a stray observation. Unless…
- By the way, why did Yugure feel the need to sweep the dude’s legs in order to save him? Why not just… catch the big heavy object?
